The Life of Liberty
by dreaming-of-degrassi
Summary: Join fifteen year old Liberty Van Zandt as she juggles the struggles of her advanced classes, the pressures from her family, and the unbelievably real longing she has to fit in and stand out at the same time. Possible future Jiberty, set in Season 5 (without pregnancy). Tons of self-discovery and angsty teenage chapters to come! Rated T to give the story some wiggle room!
1. Chapter 1

**The Life of Liberty**

_Hey um I've never written a fanfic before and I'm nervous but here goes nothing. I don't own Degrassi and any of the characters_

Chapter One

"Happy birthday, dear Liberty! Happy birthday to you!"

The candles on Liberty's birthday cake flickered with life and energy. She couldn't believe it. It was her fifteenth birthday, and here she was, being sung to again. The only thing that changed every year was the number of candles on the cake.

"Make a wish, Liberty!" her mom exclaimed, glowing. She had her camcorder in one hand, and her other hand interlocked with Liberty's father's. Liberty noticed the little things like that, how her mom liked to capture every moment, how her dad gripped her mom's hand like they only had a few good moments left. It scared her.

She closed her eyes and thought quickly. What was her wish? What did she want?

She wanted to be happy.

She blew out the candles with her eyes wide open, watching as her wish became fire.

* * *

Liberty took a deep breath and walked up the steps to school. Liberty loved Degrassi Community School. There, she felt like she had it all, at least, that's how she usually felt. Between her running for student council positions and trying to keep her place in The Grapevine, the school's newspaper, she was always really busy. Plus all of her advanced classes, way more than the regular sophomore would take…she knew that she could do it, though. She always did whatever it took to make it through.

"Hi, Liberty!" Liberty turned around to see Emma and Manny walking in unison through the hallway. Manny was wearing her favorite pink jumpsuit, and Emma had on her floral skirt. They were both always so stylish and looked great. Not like she was jealous, or anything.

Liberty smiled sheepishly, happy that at least they were all friends. "Hi Emma, Hi Manny," she replied. "Ready for the big Algebra test first period?"

"God knows I'm not," Emma said, looking pale, "I didn't get any studying done all weekend. Are you ready, Liberty?"

"Of course I am! I'm always ready."

Manny laughed. "Of course you are!"

Liberty had spent all night after her birthday party with her parents getting ready for the test. She made flash cards, study sheets, the works…and didn't get to bed until too late that night. Of course they wouldn't know how hard she had to work, especially with her dyscalculia. The teacher knew, though, thanks to her parents.

She waved goodbye to Manny and Emma and headed to her locker. It was good that she had people to talk to in the halls sometimes, but lately she's felt more unattached, more left out. Manny and Emma both were so close, always there for each other, always hanging out…nobody ever asked her to hang out after school, anymore. And even if they did, what would they talk about other than school? Liberty didn't know anything about makeup or celebrities, and definitely didn't know much about boys. The only relationship she had ever had was one with Towerz over the summer, and that didn't end very well. Like most things in her life, it kind of just got complicated, too fast, too soon.

That night, Liberty was up again late doing an essay for History. She was working in her bedroom, a small rectangular beige space with a whizzing desktop computer on a desk in the corner. She spent most of her time in the corner, doing her homework and typing, just to type. She enjoyed typing. She took pride in being a step ahead of the rest.

Tonight, however, she had a big headache and was having serious trouble working on her essay. And instead of creeping downstairs to get Advil, she clicked on Internet Explorer and went on Facerange. She smiled, seeing status updates from her cousins in Alberta and funny pictures from her friends Toby and J.T. But, as she scrolled even more, she couldn't help but notice Manny's Facerange status. She read it out loud, squinting her eyes through her wide-brimmed glasses. The type was pretty small.

"Big party Saturday night," she read aloud, "At Emma's house! Be there or be square."

_Well, _Liberty thought, _I definitely won't be there. So does that make me square? _She chuckled aloud. Great. Now she'll have to hear about the party all week…there's no chance that she'd go, even if she was allowed to. All of her friends would be there, though. She was beyond sick of hearing about all the funny things that happened, at parties she never went to, with people who didn't even consider her one of their peers. She just kinda blended with the crowd. She sighed loudly and headed downstairs to get her Advil, getting back to her late night of schoolwork.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Life of Liberty**

_(A/N): Hey, guys! I'm on winter break from school, so I decided to work on the second chapter of this fic! Thanks for the reviews and favorites and everything so far. I hope everyone has a happy holiday! _

Chapter Two

On Monday morning, Liberty walked through the front doors of Degrassi again, feeling a bit wary about starting the day after a rough weekend. The quarterly report cards came in the mail, and both Liberty and her parents weren't happy with the results. She had all A's, as usual…except for Algebra. The B on the report card meant B, for below standard. Her parents weren't as cruel to her as she was to herself, but that didn't make her feel any better. No matter what she did in math, no matter how many tutors she had, she would never get her math grade where she exactly wanted it to be, 100%. She didn't want her learning disability to be an excuse. Last night, she shed a few tears and went to bed, clutching her calculator close to her chest. _Maybe, if she thought about it enough, it would get better_, she thought. But when she woke up the next morning, her math grade was still a B and she still had a full week of school to go.

She waved to Emma and Manny, and tried to not feel too annoyed as they went through the usual Monday morning routine: overtly loud discussions of Saturday night's party, this time the one that Liberty had heard about on Facerange. They all headed to math class, and Liberty couldn't wait to get to History the period after. _Maybe an A on my History essay will cheer me up_, she thought.

After math class, she sat excitedly in History, and smiled as her teacher, Mr. Staples, handed out the graded essays.

"Nice work, Liberty," he said, smiling. She took the paper and saw an "A" plastered right on the top, just how she liked it. After a horrible weekend, she fought to hold her pride and happiness and let her teacher teach the newest lesson. Finally, she felt like she didn't lose absolutely _all _of her smarts.

The bell rang for the class and she shook out of her dream-state, stuffing her essay and books into her book bag. As she stood up to go, she heard her name being called.

"Liberty!" Mr. Staples said, standing by his desk. "Can you stay after class for a couple minutes? I have to talk to you about something."

"Sure, Mr. Staples!" Liberty watched as the rest of the class headed lazily out of the classroom, and took her things and made her way to the front of the room, where Mr. Staples had his large wooden desk. There were papers upon papers, tons of essays and textbooks. Mr. Staples picked up a packet at the top of the desk, and held it in his hands. He turned to look at Liberty, building anticipation.

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked. _I couldn't possibly be in trouble, _she thought. _Maybe an extra credit opportunity! _

"Well, Liberty, I have to tell you that I've been seeing all of the hard work that you've been doing in this class, and I'm so proud of you," he began, "And I waited until the rest of the class left because I wanted to offer you a really special opportunity."

He handed her a large manila envelope, with the words _Young Canadian History Leadership Awards_ written on the top. She opened the envelope as he spoke.

"I can only pick one student a year, the student that I think deserves this the most. It's the chance of a lifetime, Liberty. You travel to Cochrane and spend a whole month with other lovers of History your age from all over Canada. There will be guest speakers, scholarship opportunities, college scouts…and I think you need to be there."

Liberty grinned. "Thank you _so _much, Mr. Staples!" She knew it had to be something good, and something great for college.

"There's a lot of planning to do, and if you can't go I have to give the opportunity to someone else. So can you go home and have your parents read this and give it back to me with signatures and everything by sometime next week? I have to give the official attendee list to Ms. Hatzilakos in the next month, or so."

"No problem!" She took the packet. "My parents love things like this, it'll be signed by tomorrow!"

Mr. Staples laughed. "Take your time, Liberty. And congratulations."

Liberty grinned and headed to Chem. She was ready to take this on, and knew that it was something she wanted to do.

-  
Liberty got off the bus and rushed home, YCHLA packet in hand. She opened the door and went into the kitchen. She was surprised to see her dad home, because he usually worked late into the night. He was sitting at the kitchen desk with her mother, holding hands and looking deep in discussion. They didn't even see her enter the room.

There were bills and documents all over the kitchen table, calculators and receipts. They both looked pretty stressed out, and she couldn't fathom why.

"Mom, Dad?"

Liberty's mom quickly got up from her chair, frazzled. "Hey, Liberty, honey! How was school?"

"Great! Actually, better than great. Look at this!" She handed her mom the manila envelope, and began to start her pitch.

"It's the program that starts in a few weeks, I can get all my schoolwork sent to me in advance, all the best students in Canada go, there might be some college scouts, Mr. Staples said that I'm a total shoe-in! Can you guys believe –"

"Cochrane?" Lib's mom muttered. "Honey, that's pretty far away."

"Yeah, but I'll be with teachers and everything, so it's no big deal," she responded, shrugging it off. "So can you guys sign this?" She looked at all the papers on the desk. "You're obviously in the paper-reading mood today."

"Don't give your mother any attitude!" Her dad yelled, slamming his hand on the wooden table. She flinched.

He stood up and walked over, taking the packet from his wife's hand. "What is this you're talking about?"

"It's…it's an opportunity for me, Dad. It'll look really good on my college applications!"

He sifted through the packet. "Hmm…hmm…um, Liberty? This costs about three thousand dollars for room and board. How are we supposed to afford that?"

"That's never been a problem before…" Liberty muttered.

"Well, it is now!" He dropped the packet on the table and grabbed the other papers, bills and receipts and invoices, making a pile with them in his hands.

"Danny's travel basketball, your courses at the local college, and all of our other bills?!" He dropped the papers and held his hand to his head, seemingly suffering from a headache. "Lib…I lost my job."

Liberty heard her mother softly crying right next to her.

"I lost my job, Lib, and we have to cut back. I'm sorry, but we can't do this. There must be something else that will come up for less money."

She felt anger rising up inside her. "But…Dad! I have to go!"

"You don't have to do anything, anymore, except go to school," he replied, looking down. "We have to cut back, and this is not in the budget."

"Mom?"

No answer.

Liberty snatched the packet and speed walked up the stairs to her room. She sat on the floor and stared at the wall. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening.

It _wasn't_ happening.

_Didn't anybody understand how important this was? _

_And my dad lost his job, too? _

Liberty vowed to make this work, no matter what. She was going on this trip, she deserved this. _Leaders have to make tough choices sometimes, right? _


End file.
